fcasdpsychology - Piaget's Periods of Cognitive Development

Piaget's Periods of Cognitive Development

BASIC THEORY

There is a predictable set of features that characterizes each period of children's cognitive development.
All thinking goes through same stages, in order, without skipping.
Children aren't mini-adults and not dumber, they think differently.

Period	Age	Activities and Achievements
Sensorimotor	Birth-2 years	- infants discover the world through sensory impressions and movement - differentiate themselves from outside world - learn that invisible objects exist independent of the infant's actions - gain some appreciation of cause and effect
Preoperational	2-4 years 4-7 years	- cannot use information in logical ways - think in images & symbols - able to represent something using symbols - acquire language, play pretend - intuitive intelligence; children cannot make general, logical statements
Concrete Operational	7-11 years	- understand logical principles applying to concrete external objects - realize that certain properties remain the same, even if appearance changes - able to sort objects into catagories - appreciate perspective of others - able to think of two concepts at the same time
Formal Operational	Over 11 years	- can think logically about abstractions and consider what might be or what should be - work in probabilities and possibilities - imagine other ideal worlds - reason about verbal or logical statements - can relate any statement to another - reflect on own thoughts

Children move to higher stages by struggling to make sense of experiences.
- Example: sucking schema (infants: what can be sucked, what cannot) once they find something that doesn't fit in the category, they have to make a new schema
Steps within the stages:
- assimilation: children learn about new objects by using existing schemas
- accommodation: changing the schema to fit a new object
- object permanence: a sign that the sensory period has ended; children know that and object exists without touching it

Children who are deprived from sights, sounds and feelings from converstion and interaction with family members, pictures and books, toys and television have delayed cognitive development.
Conditions of neglect, malnourishment, noise and chaos also impair cognitive development.
Children without a constant caregiver are withdrawn, depressed, demand attention, and cannot control tempers
They cannot form permanent attachments with others.
Example: Feral children. Feral children lack the sights and sounds normal children get from interacting with other people. Feral children are isolated from society and do not experience these interactions. Therefore, they cannot grow mentally and increase cognitive ability.